This science fiction novel is, as author Scalzi says, a pop song in book form.

Jamie is delivering food mid-pandemic when they're offered a job that will change everything - and they can't know what it is until they get there. But it's basically the premise to the book (and not a spoiler) so I'm going to tell you now - it's working on another earth and helping to look after/study the massive animals - or Kaiju - that live there.

Most of the characters (Jamie aside, who is mostly good at lifting things), are competent scientists, and they all essentially want to do their best, which works well for the light frothy feel of the book. This is good people trying to do the right thing! There's banter, mild peril, terrible peril, then back to more banter. Plus MASSIVE MONSTERS. Godzilla-type creatures that could blow you up or blow you over. Parasites that want to kill you. Danger at every turn.

Definitely a lot of fun in Scalzi's hands. Whether it will make you think much deeper than that, I don't know (though there's some interesting commentary on nuclear weapons), and sure, there's a tendency for the characters to all inhabit the same frothy banter zone, but sometimes that's just what you need. A nice break from reality, Kaiju and all.

A thrilling and fun ride from start to finish, John Scalzi has created an incredible novel full of laughs, impressive scenery and clever characters (and that's just the Kaiju!)

I'm a huge fan of dinosaurs, but I must admit, I've never read a book about them, and didn't really know much about the Japanese Kaiju creations. However, because I love the Jurassic Park movies, I knew this would be something I'd enjoy!

I love that John has modernised the novel and kept it relevant; set during the prime of the Covid-19 pandemic, with some pop culture thrown in, both modern and retro, like the mention of Bella & Edward from Twilight, amongst other things.

This book is full of snappy, hilarious conversations, which really draw you in to the story and allow you to bond with the characters in a way that happens effortlessly.
From the get-go I liked Jamie, who didn't take any shit, especially when his boss fired him with no real reason, and he just seemed like a really genuine person (I feel like Jamie was a he, however, Scalzi never actually states the gender of our main character).

The writing style is easy, and even when the characters are discussing scientific elements, it's not completely mind-boggling, which I often find can happen with sci-fi novels. Scalzi has written it in a way that even someone who has never read sci-fi before can feel comfortable with it and not intimidated by it. The novel is also quite short, which meant I got through it within a couple of days, and sometimes I can feel disappointed with a short novel, and left wanting more, but that definitely wasn't the case here.
The book is also rumoured to be being turned into a movie, which would be brilliant, so I'm looking forward to that!

I don't want to say too much about the storyline itself, as I don't want to spoil it, but what I will say is this; The Kaiju might be big and scary looking, but they aren't the real monsters within this story.

Reading this book is like watching a Hollywood movie, well made, well crafted and well delivered. It felt like I was in this world, in this world of good vs evil, of black vs white, and yet, morally grey. It seems to show that humanity will corrupt everything it touches when it comes to climate change, the pandemic, or anything of that kind. The story is well written, and it reminded me so much of James Cameron’s Avatar.

This concept of new multi-dimension worlds with using monsters to exploit is a good idea. I think it could be even more expanded upon. Because if there are monsters in this new world or so to say, then there has to be some form of different humanity that could have survived. Neanderthals for one? There are many realms of possibilities here. If this was a Netflix series, well-adapted, this would be one worth watching. I love this kind of sci-fi alternate story.

Gray and the characters he meets definitely builds up an engaging story. I am glad the story does cover on aspects of society that show capitalism has become rotten to its core, and that while yes, we benefit from it, there are people that just don’t deserve to be in those places of power. I liked this type of storytelling because it feels what I’ve been feeling for these past two years. In the hope that humanity can have a new dawn and a new era. But as the state of the world always is, humanity will mess things up and this novel is a perfect illustration of it. I really liked this novel, and I would re-read this again as much as I can. Perfect thriller!

This was a fun read, I wasn’t sure what I expected when I first started reading but I ended up really enjoying it. I found the characters to be okay. The writing was simple and easy to get into. I really liked the premise of the book and the world of the Kaiju was interesting. The plot was very simple and it didn’t grip me as much as I expected but I still enjoyed the read. I liked this book but I didn’t love it and I’m not sure why. Overall it is a quick fun read that I will be recommending to friends.

Another classic Scalzi novel, KPS is aimed squarely at readers who grew up in, and remember the culture of the 90s fondly. There's abundant references to Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, both in terms of overt mentions, and showcased in the story design. The world building is familiar and recognisably contemporary, which helps you to see yourself in the story. It's always been, and remains one of Scalzi's core strengths as a writer. The characters are similarly familiar, friendly, slightly spiky, quippy millennials who have grown up watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The story is silly and fun, formulaic but exceedingly enjoyable. If you are looking for a hard science novel this isn't it, but if you want an engaging and light read, with lashings of 90s pop culture nostalgia, then you should read The Kaiju Preservation Society.

When Jamie Gray decides to swap his doctorate studies for a career at start-up food delivery app füdmüd, he never imagined that he’d end up actually delivering the food, much less have the ridiculous job title of Deliverator™ forced upon him. Fortunately, one of his customers is an acquaintance from university, who now works for a mysterious animal rights organisation. When Tom offers him a job, Jamie can’t turn the opportunity down - he just wasn’t expecting the animals to be quite so large. Or on a parallel Earth.

Having somehow never come across John Scalzi before, I’m not sure what I was expecting from this book, but whatever it was, I got it in spades. The Kaiju Preservation Society is pure escapism; brilliantly written, and brimming with geeky madness, diverse and relatable characters, and utterly mahoosive monsters. Put simply, it provided an extremely welcome hiatus from the downward spiral that our own reality has been locked in for the past five or six years, and my only complaints are that the book appears to be a stand-alone, and The Self Preservation Society song from The Italian Job has been playing on my internal soundtrack ever since.

Jamie makes a sympathetic protagonist, and his complete innocence of the vastly different land and its inhabitants means that he acts as a proxy for the reader, and everything can be explained to him without the reader feeling overwhelmed by an information dump. Set in early 2021, the novel acknowledges the Covid pandemic without becoming bogged with it, and keeps itself grounded in reality sufficiently that, in combination with the ‘sounds plausible enough’ science behind the kaiju and their alternate world, allows the reader to relax into the story and get pulled along for a thoroughly enjoyable ride.

I received a free reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When Kaiju ruled the world!

That’s the premise in John Scalzi’s Kaiju Preservation Society. Jamie Gray has given up their college course to work for a startup company called Müdfüd.

At an appraisal with their boss, Jaimie’s life is irrevocably changed when they are ‘let go’ from their job. They are offered a job as a delivery person. However things are about to change when the pandemic strikes.

Whilst out delivering, he happens to deliver to an old friend who seems to have done
quite well for themselves. Over a period of time they reacquaint themselves and Jamie is offered a job.

What Jamie does not realise is that the job is on an alternative earth, studying massive Kaiju, who have developed on an alternative evolutionary trajectory.

This is the first book by John Scalzi that I have read and found that it was a good introduction to his writing as it is a light read that is just entertainingly fun. The prose is light and breezy, and by his own admission, this is a bit of a pop novel that is simply there to entertain, which it does with ease.

One of the strengths of the book is the relationship between the new comrades as they become orientated to this new earth. There is plenty of snarky dialogue between the new recruits as they become familiar with both their new roles in the job, and this other earth that is vastly different, where in all honesty it is not the massive Kaiju that is the main danger, but everything else.

As the story progresses we are treated to the scientific reasons why the Kaiju exist and how they differ from our perceived ideas of just being behemoths that terrorise the world they live in and are in fact massive ecosystems that are a part of the ecology of the world. You are never overwhelmed by the ‘science’ of the world that Jamie now inhabits and it adds to the fun of the book.

There is a solid cast of characters that are well realised. The characters are all diverse, and John Scalzi doesn’t make any issue of this, for example, we have non binary characters, and this is treated as part of the culture. No judgement, no source of conflict etc, which makes it refreshingly inclusive.

The book is peppered with pop culture references, and there are references to things like Godzilla and other things that make you smile as the references become more apparent.

However, underneath the fluff and bubblegum, there is a satirical swipe at our current world and the corporate dictation that has emerged and shines a light on the fact that this culture regularly puts profit at the forefront of its ethos and the disastrous results this can have.

The book itself is lighthearted and playful, and will be a delight for those of us who have grown up on monster flicks, and wondered about the science behind the creature.

Sometimes you choose a book because of the author, or the description, or the cover, but this time the title was enough to make me want to read it.

Jamie Gray has a great idea about how to maximise profits from meal deliveries at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. His ridiculously wealthy boss thinks its a great idea too, and that their firm should adopt it. Oh and then he goes on to sack Jamie, although generously offering him a gig as a delivery driver in the firm. And there′s a pandemic starting, no money coming in from his flat mates, so that′s what Jamie ends up doing. It looks to be a dead end until he meets an old acquaintance who is in need of someone desperate for a better job.
Which involves Jamie travelling to another world where he does the grunt work for an operation which is studying Kaiju, yes those Kaiju – the inspiration for Godzilla and Pacific Rim.
And then his boss turns up again, which probably isn′t going to turn out well.

For a book that starts in the pandemic there′s a lot of humour in this book. It may not be laugh out loud funny, but I often found myself breaking into a smile. The author cleverly skates over many of the logistics of how the Kaiju actually exist by setting the story in a research environment where they′re still studying the beasts. And he does come up with clever explanations for the whole system. There are running jokes and great action scenes and even a little poignancy. All in all a fun read.

I had a copy of this book early through Netgalley

This one is a bit of a unique one -not in plot as such, but in how it’s written. We follow Jamie who lost his job before the pandemic, we love so dearly, called Covid hit the world and everything went to hell in a hand basket. Jamie is very curious when he meets an ex-colleague who tells him that the company he works for needs another body to do some work for them, we soon find out that this work involves some animal handling like nothing you’ve seen before with your own eyes. Nestled in another freaking dimension are Kaiju, big ass creatures as scary as anything 20 times your size that has an appetite for humans. But if this organisation can access this place, you can bet your last lettuce leaf that so can other people, so should they really try to save these creatures that would be more than happy to make them their next meal?

This book was filled with HILARIOUS banter that I just needed more of, I can absolutely see why this book has been optioned for a film, I would love to see this all play out on a big screen. There wasn’t really any descriptive world building in this one so you had to really use your imagination, and that’s another reason I want this to be a film. If you want a hilariously fun read then definitely pick this book up, I doesn’t take long to get through because you can’t put it down. Gave me major Jurassic Park vibes, I mean how many times can we do the whole “let’s bring back/save these big ass creatures who are top of the food chain and can swallow us whole in one bite” without someone out there thinking that this might actually be a great idea…

Thank you to Black Crow PR an UK Tor for a proof and spot on the blog tour in exchange for my review. 10/10 recommend for a great read that was funny enough to make me want to re-read it already.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The book starts with our protagonist, Jamie Gray, losing his job during covid. Whilst working a dead-end job, an old friend bumps into him.
Suddenly he's offered a fantastic offer, helping care for large animals. The catch is he'll be away from everyone he knows for a long time.
It turns out the "large animals" are Kaiju.

The book's first half is mainly the setup before the real story starts. It's 100% light and fun. If you want to enjoy yourself, I highly recommend buying this.

The pandemic books are coming! About six months ago the first wave of books inflected by the pandemic started to appear. A lot were just notes in non-fiction which said how the pandemic had affected how they wrote, or their perspective on their subject. Then there was a wave of science fiction that either obliquely referenced it as a past event, or had similar themes and had to deal with being timely. Isabelle Allende's Violetta used it as punctuation - a story of a life that started in the 1919 Flu Pandemic and finish with Coronavirus. But The Kaiju Preservation Society is probably the first pandemic escapism fiction I've read. Not just literally, though the lead character does effectively escape the New York pandemic by travelling to a parallel universe, but also it felt like a silly giant hug of escapism. After coming of a pretty cynical trilogy, it felt like Scalzi was either palate-cleansing or just bashing out something to keep his own spirits up (and I daresay fulfil a contract). Luckily as he likes to talk about his process, in the Afterword he pretty much confirms that he was writing something bigger, darker, and just had to put that on hold. He says this book pretty much wrote itself, and reading it, that feeling is certainly there.

Its a very simple story - the set-up not a million miles from Pacific Rim. Humanity has discovered a way of travelling to a parallel Earth which has no humans and is dominated by giant Kaiju. A secret set of scientists have been working there to study them, and also to try to ensure they don't cross-over (as this is possible in areas of nuclear blasts). So about fifty percent is wondrous world building where our Sci-Fi lit major lead character - hired to carry shit - breaks down the science of this different world, these nuclear powered kaiju and the ecology built around them. He has to stuff in a baddie somewhere, and after having spent next to no subtlely in calling out shortsighted food delivery tech-bro's in the opening chapter, he is more than happy to return to that well. And that is fine, this is silly, bombastic entertainment that wants us to hiss at the baddies (capitalist exploiters) and cheer for the good guys (scientists, people who carry stuff). And it is fun.

Scalzi's voice is all over this of course, and being in a singular first person perspective means his lead character is enthused with his normal snark. Its possibly a little cute with its pop culture references, but then the book is set so specifically in this place and time that it doesn't really matter. It is - for better or worse - a book called The Kaiju Preservation Society written to cheer up its own author and his audience during a pandemic. Within that context, it works perfectly.

The book I read before this was Pacific Rim: Blackout, so I wasn't sure what I was going to find when I started reading this one. Whatever I was suspecting when I started, it was something else by the time I finished.

What would happen if Kaiju not only existed, but needed to be protected from those who would otherwise exploit them? It's difficult to imagine anything being able to exploit a kaiju, particularly when most of the stories you see of Kaiju are of these behemoths laying waste to cities. But what if you could study them in their natural habitat, not when they were being controlled by dark powers or sent as soldiers for alien invasions, what then?

Kaiju tourism, defence contracts, what would you do with a creature that grows its own nuclear reactor organically, what could be done with naturally occurring armour that can resist tank shells? What couldn't you do if you had a way to study and dissect these creatures?

It's a good, thought provoking exercise, there's a lot of references to other books and films, more than I thought were required, but necessary if you weren't part of the generation that would remember things like Snow Crash and Trading Places., and there were parts where I wondered if it was more like Ready Player One than Pacific Rim, but it was an enjoyable read.

Very silly and very fun in classic Scalzi style. At first I wasn't totally sure why the book is set during the pandemic, given most of the action occurs on a parallel Earth, but as Scalzi makes clear in the afterword, this "pop song" of a book, as he puts it, was his way of coping with the past couple of years. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC

I am grateful to Pan Macmillan and Tor for sending me an ARC of this book.

In an endnote, Scalzi writes "KPS is not, and I say this with absolutely no slight intended, a brooding symphony of a novel. It's a pop song. It's meant to be light and catchy, with three minutes of hooks and choruses for you to sing along with, and then you're done and you go on with your day, hopefully with a smile on your face". And just like a pop song, this book can leave you frustrated if you were expecting something more substantial.

The 'Old Man's War' series and the 'Interdependency' trilogy show that Scalzi has a knack for great worldbuilding, awesome characters (Kiva Lagos, amirite?), and satisfying storytelling. Unfortunately, in 'The Kaiju Preservation Society', while the worldbuilding is certainly there, the characters and story are lacking.

* Worldbuilding *
There is a lot of worldbuilding in this book. Arguably too much. The first 70% of the novel are almost exclusively setting the scene for the last 30%, and so not much happens for quite a while, which I found grating. However, there are many great ideas here, and cultural references abound.

* Characters *
To balance the slow build-up, Scalzi relies on quippy dialogue to give his characters some substance. Unfortunately, I did not find this sufficient, and ultimately, I did not care much about the outcome of the quest.

* Story *
While the novel opens quite strongly, the plot falters for a long time, and we only get to the action in the last 30% of the book. And when we get there, the resolution comes all too quickly to build much tension.

In conclusion, as a Scalzi fan, I found this novel rather disappointing. I think it's because it shares one key aspect with 'Redshirts' (the one other Scalzi work I didn't like much): a reliance on the central concept to the detriment of story and characters.

I'll look forward to the next "dark, heavy, complex, and broodingly ambitious" novel!

Oh! But this is ridiculously fantastic fun. An unemployed sci-fi geek escapes the pandemic by going all David Attenborough with Godzilla.

Yes, it is an exercise in nerdy wish fulfilment. But who among us wouldn't have rather spent the last two years being chased by giant scary monsters rather than cowering away from a microscopic virus?

It a joyful piece of bubble-gum sci-fi. It plays well with tropes and, much like Redshirts, gives the reader exactly what they need.

It isn't very subtle. But then, these are not subtle times. The goodies are good, the baddies suitably menacing. It drifts towards the science side of science-fiction. Lots of geologists and physicists expositioning on what makes a Kaiju tick.

In a way, it's a shame that the book's title gives away the first-quarter twist - it would have been nice to have been as shocked as the protagonist. It's also suffused with mid-pandemic terror which, again, I could have done without - having just lived through it! But those are minor complaints.

If you want to sit down on a beach with a good slice of sci-fi - and have a thorough good time escaping from reality - this is perfect. And you'll get to say how much you enjoyed the book compared to the inevitable Netflix series.

This is an entertaining book - it's not what I thought it would be when I read the title (been watching too much Godzilla) but the premise was good nonetheless. Imagine if you will another dimension where humans have been able to have access to an almost primordial world which has very different rules for physics - that's where you find yourself in this barn stomping read. It's fast paced, characters are a little one dimensional but, hey, we're not here for the plot! The Kaiju's are huge. Too big to exist really. That's what's fun though; this is a switch your brain off and enjoy the ride kind of novel. All good times.

First of all thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I must say I didn't know what to expect, and was postponing reading this. On the one hand, the author has an excellent reputation for innovative sci fi (full disclosure - I've not yet read it), but on the other, it's a book about godzilla like monsters (which is a genre most often best left for anime, in my opinion).

Having taken the plunge - I loved it! As the author himself says, this is a pop song and not a complex symphony. And as pop songs go, this one is awesome. It tells the story of a young executive in a start up being fired, and finding himself shortly thereafter on a parallel earth risking his life to help 150 metre nuclrar powered monsters procreate. While it sounds outrageously improbable (which it is), the author somehow makes it fun, hilarious, enchanting, and endearing at the same time.

My favourite aspect was the interplay and the dialogue among the protagonists. It was expertly done, with wit and nuance. I even chuckled out loud!

I have mixed history with Scalzi: I loved The Dispatcher but hated Lock In. In fact I’m a bit picky with sci-fi generally, having a penchant for time travel (I know, some consider this a different genre) and stories I can get my limited imagination around. Generally, monsters and too clever gizmos turn me cold. So perhaps I made a mistake in choosing this one – it’s big on monsters.

I’m not going to delve too deeply into the plot, suffice to say that an unemployed sci-fi ‘expert’ finds himself transported to a parallel Earth in which humongous flying creatures are considered a species heading for extinction and therefore worthy of treatment that in this Earth are afforded to Giant Pandas. There’s a lot of science here, a good deal of humour and a posse of characters with PhDs.

I only made it a third of the way through: the humour didn’t work for me - I prefer my sci-if to be on the serious side - but mainly it was the monsters, I just couldn’t buy into them or, in fact, the overall premise of this tale. I’ve seen some reviews from readers who absolutely love this book and I’m tempted to say that I made an error on picking a book that included elements I was never going to appreciate. My bad, so I’m awarding this one an extra star (I normally award only one star to any book I fail to finish).

"The Kaiju Preservation Society" is a fun (and funny), easy to read, and incredibly enjoyable book. I loved the writing, the way the characters were formed (and the way they grow), the plot doesn't take itself too seriously, and that just makes it that little bit more special. This is perfect escapism from everything, and I hope John Scalzi will be seriously considering a sequel.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

I first read John Scalzi when I was given ‘Redshirts’ for my birthday. As a lifelong Trekkie, I loved it, and thoroughly enjoyed everything of his that I’ve read since. This is no exception.
In Scalzi’s own words, ‘this is not a brooding symphony, it’s a pop song’. And he’s right. But it’s a very GOOD pop song.
The story is set in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic. Jamie, the main character, narrator and all-round nice guy, has lost his job and is struggling to make ends meet.
A chance encounter leads to an enigmatic job offer, and Jamie finds himself working for KPS - the Kaiju Preservation Society ( I had to Google Kaiju..it’s a real word!)
Think Jurassic Park on steroids, with a pinch of Stargate thrown in, and an Enid Blyton style adventure, but for grown-ups (Four Go on a Monster Adventure?).
This would make a great film. But read the book first!